As part of its digital strategy to assist accounting professionals and students alike, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has designed two applications, the Student Planner and the Research and Insights application.

With these applications, students and accountancy professionals now have access to information at their fingertips, to keep them organised and informed of key accounting issues.

According to the Policy Director, ACCA, Ewan Willars, “These applications have been designed to make it easier to access information on technology that more and more people are now relying on, such as smartphones and tablets, in their busy day-to-day lives,” stressing that “This is part of ACCA’s digital strategy, which is about making our products and materials available to the online community.”

The Student Planner application is free to download and is available on the iPhone. It offers students advice on how to get started with the ACCA qualification, pass exams, gain experience and behave ethically and professionally. It provides a countdown to key dates relating to exams and recording experience, with the ability to set alerts for the events and synchronise them with their iPhone calendar.

“It also acts as an interactive tool to work out when they might become an ACCA member, based on their progress and if they stay on track with their study and plans for gaining experience,” adding that “it provides an insight into how fast they are progressing and tips on how to move faster through to ACCA membership.”

On the other hand, a free Research and Insights application is produced for the iPad, which keeps users up-to-date with the latest reports that have been published such as Risk: The Inside Story.

The applications also explores trends and issues crucial for business, economies, society and the accountancy profession, now and in the future.

There are other features to the applications such as exclusive video interview with ACCA’s leading experts and interactive infographics.